Adhesive Strength

Broad Question

Do different surfaces affect a tape's adhesive strength?

Specific Question

How much mass will scotch, masking, and duct tape be able to hold on the surfaces of ice, metal, and wood?

Variables

Independent Variable: Tape

Dependent Variable: Mass (g)

http://www.utu-intl.com/tape.htm

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

1. Brand Of Tape
2. Mass weights
3. Surfaces

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that all of the types of tape will hold the most mass (g) on the surface of metal.

Graph of Hypothesis

http://www.squidoo.com/duct-tape-delights?utm_source=google&utm_medium=imgres&utm_campaign=framebuster

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General Plan

Experimental Design

I am going to conduct an experiment that tells me how strong a tapes adhesive strength is on different surfaces. This experiment will take place at my own household. I am the only person conducting my experiment. The roles I must do to complete my experiment are that of sticking three types of tape on three different surfaces and see how much mass those tapes can hold on each surface. Then I will add up all of the masses for each type of tape on each surface and find the average mass from the three trials I am going to do.
As I conduct the experiment I will write down the masses on the printed out spreadsheet and then put that information onto the computer when I am done with each trial. To document my experiment I will use a digital camera to take pictures of when I conduct and go through the process of my experiment. Then I will upload those images to my computer and share them with my science teacher on Google docs.

Material List

1. Scotch Tape
2. Masking Tape

3. Duct Tape
4. Single Hole Puncher
5. Small Plastic Cups
6. String
7. Digital Camera
8. Ice
9. Metal Surface
10. Wood Surface
11. Pennies

Detailed Procedure

1. Get all Materials
2. Punch hole in scotch tape
3. Punch one hole on each side of plastic cup
4. Tie string to cup and scotch tape
5. Get Ice
6. Stick scotch tape to ice and start putting pennies in plastic cup
7. Take pictures
8. Record number of pennies it took until tape fell of surface
9. Repeat #’s 1-8 three more times
10. Repeat #’s 1-9 but with the surface of metal
11. Repeat #’s 1-9 but with the surface of
12. Repeat #’s 1-11 but with masking tape
13. Repeat #’s 1-11 but with duck tape
http://adventuresinmaking.blogspot.com/2010/08/material-tie-dye-duck-tape.html

Data Table

Time Line

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Background Research

There are new types of masking tape. For instance they made different color masking tapes which may affect how strong its adhesive strength is.


Duct Tape is made of of a cotton webbing at the base of the tape. A polyethylene coat is put over the cotton webbing to protect it from moisture and make it last longer. The adhesive on Duct tape is made out of rubber compounds to make the bond between tape and object last longer.


Richard Drew invented masking tape in the 1920’s and Scotch tape in the 1930’s. He invented masking tape to solve the problem of having people who painted cars in to different colors be able to rip off the tape and not have the paint rip off as well.

An object that isn’t being pushed or pulled stays still or keeps moving in a straight line at a constant speed.

References

Donovan, Mark J. "Masking Tape ." http://www.homeadditionplus.com/Painting-info/Masking-Tape.htm. N.p., n. d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012.

Hammond , Richmond. Can You Feel The Force? New York City, NY: DK Publishing Inc., 2006. Print.

"What is Duct Tape Made of?." Buytape.com. N.p., Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.buytape.com/what_is_duct_tape_made_of.shtml>.

"What is scotch tape made from, and how does it work?." http://www.yesmag.ca/. Peter Piper Publishing Inc., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.yesmag.ca/Questions/tape.html>.

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Results

Data Table

Graph

Photos

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Data Analysis

Conclusion

The original purpose of the experiment was to see how much mass different types of tapes could hold on different surfaces. In my experiment I used scotch, masking, and duct tape. I also used the surfaces of wood, metal, and ice. The results of my experiment were that instead of the tape ripping off of the surface it ripped itself when the mass of pennies got to high. Also, the only combination that worked as planned was ice and scotch tapes with the masses of 15, 15, and 17 pennies. Neither masking or duct tape stuck to the ice. This experiment didn’t go as planned so I decided to record the amount of mass each tape could handle on each surface.

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Discussion

My hypothesis was that all of the types of tape will hold the most mass (pennies) on the surface of metal. My results did not support my hypothesis. All of the tapes held the most mass on the surface of wood. For example, the average mass duct tape held on wood was 471.33 pennies. On metal it held 468.33 pennies. There is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables in my project. The stronger the tape’s adhesive strength the more mass it can hold. The only surface this does not work on is ice. Duct tape always held the most mass.
I think the tests I did, did not go smoothly because the experiment did not go as planned. I planned that the tape would rip off of the surfaces. Instead, the tape ripped itself when there was too much mass on it. If I could improve my experiment, I would get better material and plan out my experiment more intently to get better results. An interesting future study might involve me shooting basketballs from different distances from the hoop to find the percentage of shots made from each distance.